The rain gods have largely been welcoming of the Indians on this tour. Touted to be forever lurking around the corner — perhaps to prove the weatherman right as and when they arrive — a practice session in Galle and an hour’s play at the P Sara Oval is all that they have interfered with so far.
The uninvited guests, however, chose to make an appearance on Friday at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) ground and spoil the party. The locals say that it generally rains in spurts here. On the first day of the third Test though, what started as a pitter-patter turned into a torrent, washing out 75 overs of play.
Barely 75 minutes was possible as India, asked to bat first, ended the day on 50 for two, with Cheteshwar Pujara batting on 19 and Virat Kohli on 14. It poured relentlessly for almost an hour, forcing an early lunch, and the groundstaff were teased by a drizzle for a further hour and a half. After a final inspection at 3.30 p.m., play was called off.
On Saturday, play will start 15 minutes early — at 9.45 a.m. — and, weather permitting (thunderstorms have been forecast for the next four days), will be extended until 5.15 p.m.
Earlier, the visitors made two forced changes as expected. Pujara took the place of M. Vijay at the top of the order and Naman Ojha made his Test debut, replacing Wriddhiman Saha.
The hosts had a debutant of their own, in Kusal Perera, a wicket-keeper batsman, in place of Jehan Mubarak. Upul Tharanga and Nuwan Pradeep occupied the slots vacated by the now-retired Kumar Sangakkara and Dushmantha Chameera.
It was a testing pitch, sporting a thick covering of grass; quite unbecoming of a SSC wicket. K.L. Rahul fell off the second ball of the day, bowled for two after shouldering arms to Dhammika Prasad, who has made it a habit of striking early in his spell.
An uncertain Rahul thought he had the line covered, only for the ball to jab back appreciably and hit the top of off-stump.
In his nine Test innings so far, Rahul, other than the two centuries, has a highest score of 16.
In the day’s fourth over, Pradeep trapped the other centurion from the second Test — Ajinkya Rahane — in front with an in-swinging yorker-length delivery. India was reduced to 14 for two at that stage.
EdgyIf the Indians, like in the previous two Tests, had expected the sun to break through, bake the pitch and make it easy for batting, it wasn’t to be. Pujara and Kohli both survived edges that didn’t carry to the slips. In between, Kohli had two boundaries off his legs and Pujara one in the ‘V’.
Then Perera, who took over the wicket-keeping duties from Dinesh Chandimal, suffered the ignominy of dropping his first chance in international cricket. Kohli, when on eight, pushed at a wide length ball from Pradeep, which, after taking the inside-edge and evading Perera’s grasp, hit the helmet and cost Sri Lanka five runs. Instead of 28 for three, it became 33 for two.
